Different Circumstances
by Akky-chan
Summary: After Cross is sent to find the legendary weapon Abaddon, he never returns. Some years later, the Order learns Cross is alive and has an apprentice, and send out Exorcists to find the one who might be the only lead to Cross, and then, Abaddon. Semi-AU.
1. The Apprentice

**Hooo, geez, here I go again. **

**This was first posted on dA (again) but I'm only up to three chapters so far (thank god for that, right?) and it was supposed to be an apology (for spending so much time off dA) but it kinda bombed when the idea in my head got so big I wanted to show you guys (a lot of my stories end up like this) and I have already established the updates will take a while (this one has longer chapters than my usual length) and this wont be affecting any of my other stories updates (since I've already been writing it in between time), you'll just be getting more 8)**

**...so don't kill me and my freakishly overactive imagination?**

**I don't know what to blame the inspiration for this one on, but I think I came up with the idea waaay back when everyone was really excited and swapping ideas about who the 14th was and Mana was the main suspect or something (around the lvl 4 arc), but one of my conversations with someone led to an interesting idea and I wrote a bit and came back to it and for the past few weeks it's been morphing into something else so that's where this one's from.**

**So... this basically happens sometime after the Rewinding Town but before The Vampire's Castle, so I don't know what happened to Krory just yet o—o he might come in, he might not, we'll find out once it's all over, okay?**

**So... in a nutshell, the Order is looking for Cross, they learned he had an apprentice, they track down the apprentice in Order to find Cross, but the apprentice is... in a word: reluctant. That being he's Cross's subdued miniature. And he does not like the Order for a reason I am not yet revealing, but the Mana incident happened and the 14th is involved, so stay tuned! **

**Um... yeah... what can I say? I love screwing with story lines 8) makes life interesting**

**disclaimer: ...this is what I would have done if I owned it. Bam. I don't. **

**(Wow, that was a long A/N...)**

"KOMUI! WE'VE GOT HIM!" The red head sprinted down the road, which was deserted except for a single figure, a Chinese man in a long white lab coat with glasses and a white barret over his curled black hair.

Komui turned around to see the read head. "Already? It's only been a month!" Komui exclaimed. He was staring at the redhead in shock, amazed a person with such a background and experience at being hidden could be caught in a month. The redhead seemed less amazed at the time, but rather more disappointed.

"Yeah, it took us forever, even after talking to all those _women_! What does the guy spend his time doing? He _cant_ be like his teach' canne?" He ran a hand with a black fingerless glove through his hair, which seemed to be ablaze. Readjusting his green fish-scale and cloth headband, he looked at Komui directly through one eye, as his other was covered with an eye patch. "Come on, Kanda's holding him with Lenalee."

Komui nodded shortly and swiftly followed the younger male. The Bookman's apprentice, Lavi, to be more exact. Lavi led Komui to an alleyway. In the back were three struggling teens. A boy, Japanese, with long flowing hair pulled back into a high, tight pony tail. Another, a girl, with the same black hair as the boy and Komui, but pulled into pigtails which bounced gracefully at the side of her head. The third was the opposite of them all.

He was slightly short and very skinny, so you might think he hadn't eaten in weeks. His hair wasn't exactly long, but it drooped past his chin and onto his shoulders, covering his neck and eyes with a thin spray of white. He covered most of the hair with an off-white cloth which might have once been some sort of fine silk. His coat, unlike the others, which were black, was a dark maroon color, with a high collar and brass large buckles. His boots were scuffed and getting more marks, even as Komui summed him up, by hitting against the stone wall of the alley as he fought to break free of Kanda's grip.

"You certainly don't look like something he would take as a student..." Komui commented absentmindedly. The boy's head flew up, revealing silver-gray eyes and a long, deep scar underneath and possibly above, though the bangs made it impossible to see well, his left eye. He certainly looked nothing like what Komui had imagined i_him/i_ of all people to take along and train for possibly unorthodox reasons.

"Look," The albino (albino, or suffering from a major shock? No matter, he had white hair) said, much clearer than Komui expected, there was something in his appearance, or perhaps his appearance as a whole, that made it seem like he wouldn't be one for good speech. "Whatever Master did, I'll pay for it, just give me a little time, like a day or so. How much was it, and was it irreplaceable?" Komui and Lavi exchanged looks, both cocking eyebrows.

"I'm sorry, Mr... uh..."

"Allen," the teen said irritably. Komui nodded.

"Allen, it's not about money in any way, we—" Allen's face, if it had been annoyed before, now took a dramatic turn and became frightened.

"Hey, first off, I already get that enough, so you don't have to kill me to call it even with Master! He wouldn't care at all, anyway, you'd be wasting your time!" He said loudly and hurriedly. "If it's about this girl—" He turned his head sharply to look at Lenalee, "—sorry, I cant do anything about that, and I am not gonna repeat any crimes, if that's what you're thinking, I swear! Just let me pay off the goddamn debt and let's call it even, 'kay?" He shot Komui a pleading look. Lavi looked completely bemused and scratched the back of his head absentmindedly, looking at Komui as if to ask if he missed something. Kanda looked absolutely disgusted at the boy he was restraining, and Lenalee stared at him, wide-eyed about that 'repeat any crimes' remark he said in very rapid passing.

"Allen..." Komui said very slowly. "Would you allow me to please finish my statement?" Allen glanced around. One person restraining with an iron grip, another ready to grab him if he were to somehow get away. Two more to block his path even then, and three of them were exorcists.

Yes, Allen knew about the exorcists. That was one of the reasons he was more on edge about them than he usually would be. He was fairly sure exorcists didn't go around killing... well, _people_, but still. When you are Cross Marians apprentice, you learn to have a bit of ill-will towards the Order in general. Especially after four years. And for Allen in particular, he had learned to be wary of the exorcists. However, he wasn't about to escape today, so he nodded once and waited for the inevitable remark that meant certain death.

"We need information. Not money, not... anything else, that you may think of. Simple information and cooperation." Allen's eyes widened in response. No death threats? No beatings for information? Just... questions? "And no, you don't have a choice. Sorry, Allen."

He narrowed his eyes right before a hard hand hit him behind his neck on his pressure points. He groaned. Black.

000

"Was it really necessary to knock him out, brother?" Lenalee asked. Lavi nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, Komui, it looked like he might've been willing to talk!" Komui sighed and shook his head.

"You forget, this is Cross Marian's pupil." He said, he had restated it unimaginable times over the past month. '_Whenever we find them, don't forget who they are' 'If we can only find the apprentice, remember who his teacher is' 'No matter what, remember, they knew the art of deception like they were born with it'_,Lavi, Lenalee, and Kanda all were tired of hearing this over and over. They understood, whichever they catch, General or pupil, they could easily be tricked and end up starting the search all over again.

Kanda snorted and readjusted the limp form on his shoulder, sliding it off as they neared the coach. Lavi climbed in first and helped slide the unmoving boy to the seat on the far end of the coach and slid in beside him. "Yuu, I think you went a bit far, he's not moving at all..." Lavi ignored Kanda's angry reply which mostly consisted on a rant about not using his first name.

Komui sighed. "It's probably all for the better he doesn't wake up too soon..." He reached into one of his oversized pockets and pulled out something small and clanking, like metal.

"Brother, do we really have to handcuff him?" Lenalee asked as Komui slid one end shut around Allen's right arm and the other on a brass candel stick which stuck out of the wall to provide light once night came. It was a few hours away at most.

"Better safe than sorry, I don't want him libel to cause damage." Komui explained. Kanda slid in grudgingly next to Lavi, and Lenalee and Komui across them. The three exorcists nodded slowly. It still felt like a bad idea to restrain him... there was something about him that said holding him wasn't a good idea.

He awoke barely thirty minutes later. Possibly many less. The first thing Allen did was tug roughly at the handcuff on his right hand. After one hard tug in which Lavi, who was the only one who noticed he was awake, received a soft hit in the jaw. It stung, anyway. Allen's eyes darted around the small carriage room, looking for an escape or some sign to explain it all. Kanda stood up.

"You're awake." He stated the obvious with a hint of poison. His hand at his waist, he slowly showed part of a blade's cutting edge. "This is Mugen, answer honestly and Mugen wont have to meet your vital organs." Allen twitched and scowled.

"Would Mugen like to meet Grave, instead?" He asked, matching Kanda's savageness in his eyes, making all other occupants shudder.

"G-guys... no fighting in the very small coach where no one can hide if you go crazy..." Lavi said, holding his hands up between them and speaking in a very small voice. Komui coughed.

"Yes, now Kanda, please put Mugen away so we can begin." He pushed up his thin-rimmed glasses higher on his nose. Readjusting his barret as well, and holding up a clipboard. Allen sighed quietly, looking like— in Lavi and Lenalee's eyes— a lost puppy who had been kicked too many times. He just had that sad look engraved into him, even in the alley, there had been a distinct air of some sadness coming from around him, and now, it shown strangely clearer.

"I don't know where Master is, I don't know about the movements of the Noahs, and no, I wont go to the Order for actual training when I am perfectly capable on my own," Allen said calmly. Komui and the others blinked._ H-he didn't see the notebook— he's psychic? Could that be his innocence's ability?_ It took them a moment to realize that if he was psychic, he wouldn't have panicked so badly when he misunderstood Komui in the alleyway. Komui shook himself out of the stupor and cleared his throat once again.

"Allen, you surely must have at least some idea of where General Cross is," Komui said. Allen shook his head firmly.

"I don't, if you want proof, talk to any of the ladies between here and middle-India," Allen said. His voice stony and face stoic. All in the carriage could feel the beads of sweat starting to dribble down the sides of their heads, despite it nearing late October.

Komui sighed, "Do you have any way at all of _finding_ Cross, despite not knowing where he is?"

"Why would I tell if I did, anyway?" Allen asked with dead sarcasm lacing the question. Kanda twitched. "I'm not scared of your sword, feminine-face."

Stunned silence elapsed for several minutes as Lavi, Lenalee and Komui all processed the same thought. _D....did he just call.... Kanda Yuu... a feminine-face?_ Kanda twitched. Many, many times. Very large twitches. Allen stared at him, daring him to move while in the enclosed space.

"The moment we are out of here, Moyashi..."

"I'm not a Beansprout, fem-face."

"You are dead once I get enough room to move..."

"Of course, Missus Kanda, I await when that's possible," He spat.

"_Do you have any wants?_" Komui asked loudly, stunning the two momentarily. Kanda snorted and sat back down again, crossing his arms and looking away from the white haired boy. Allen scowled and looked at Komui.

"Any particular reason you're asking this?" He asked quietly. The carriage fell through a pothole in the road and jumped. Allen's facial expression didn't waver at all. Komui sighed and pushed his glasses up his nose once again.

"Allen, if you help us find General Cross, what would you want in return," He stared stiffly at the boy across from him. Allen's eyebrows went up and were hidden in the curtain of white bangs. A very small, sad smile crept onto his face.

"So the order's sunk to blackmailing apprentices now?" He asked. Komui stared at him, waiting for an answer. Allen sighed finally, almost a minute later.

"It's something no mortal could ever get for another."

"What if we could though?" Lenalee piped up. Allen turned his head and looked at her skeptically. She flinched. "I mean, what if we somehow _did_ get it? The Order has enough technology and resources, we might be able to get it..." Allen rolled his eye and gave a weak laugh. Lavi, who was unfortunate enough to be right beside him, felt his blood run icy cold. That laugh was completely empty. No humor, no mirth, no emotion in it at all. It was perfectly hollow.

"I'm telling you right now..." Allen smiled sadly again, "It's impossible unless you don't mind your world being completely destroyed."

000

"Komui, he's made it clear that he's not going to help us, why do we still have him around?" Lavi asked as the finder pulled the carriage to a stop by a small but supposedly good inn. Allen was once again asleep, or seemingly. Lavi got the feeling that he wasn't the type to sleep in front of 'captors', as he was probably already labeling them.

"Lavi, there's still a chance we can get him to consent to tell us, we just have to wait it out." Lavi nodded and sighed. It made sense, but that didn't mean he felt comfortable enough around this kid to trust him. "Lavi, remember, after a while, even a prisoner could form a bond with their captors." Komui smiled kindly. Lavi grunted.

"Yeah, yeah, go back to the old wives tales why not?" He mumbled. Kanda, once again, got the job of holding onto Allen, given they still didn't know what his weapon was. Except for the name, which was apparently 'Grave'. They didn't quite want to know how it got that name. Lavi had guessed right that Allen wasn't asleep half the way, given as he didn't even stumble as Kanda half dragged him out by the back of his trench coat, the handcuff still on his right hand.

"If you weren't so important, Mugen would be in your gut by now," Kanda hissed. Allen snorted as Kanda jostled him.

"Right, I noticed you make a lot of excuses to not kill me." Allen said. He stopped talking abruptly when Kanda pushed him again and closed his mouth to avoid biting his tongue.

"Kanda, please, you're not helping at all," Komui said somewhere between seriously and sarcastically. Kanda grunted. Allen just glared forward.

Stepping into the small inn, several people turned to look at the strange new arrivals. It after all wasn't often you saw three black-clad teenagers with holy marks on their coats restraining a boy who looked like he belonged on the street. Actually, it wast even normal to see a girl in anything other than a dress. It was considered naughty to show so much as an ankle in most places, however, this girl was showing her full legs until the miniskirt came at the near top of her hips. To be quite frank, some of the men were having naughtier visions than showing some ankle.

Two men slid their chairs back with soft but sharp scraping sounds and made their way over to the group. One was bald though still young, suggesting he had shaved his head. The other had dreadlocks for some obscure reason that could only be guessed at. Both were rather large and muscular, at the prime of their life. Allen groaned softly at seeing them approach and struggled a bit against Kanda's grip.

When the weak attempt at escape failed, he took a deep breath as the shadows of the two men leered over them.

"Um... Kurtus and Greg, right?" He asked. The two men nodded.

"You got a good memory, kid," The bald man, Kurtus, cracked his knuckles menacingly.

"If memory serves, you were the ones who tried to sell my internal organs for payment, correct?" Allen said carefully. The exorcists all raised eyebrows. The men nodded. "Erm..."

"Last requests?"

"That you don't kill me."

"Smart mouth."

"I'm being serious here."


	2. Jacks vs Queens

**Alternate chapter title: "Every Story Has a Perverted Moment" ...and honestly, I had to get that out right at the beginning so I wouldn't be tempted to do something that would completely destroy the plot. It's a small funny thing, but I do admit that I have been known to be a CrossAllen fan.. but it's meant for humor in here, nothing more. A failure at humor, but at least you wont be stuck with something else that's way out there and stupid, right? So forgive that little line... it probably wont happen again... ^^' No kill, please?**

**And I'm admitting it now... I'm a review whore 0.0; And guys, 11 reviews in THREE HOURS?? 8D -bursts from joy- REECCORDD!!! -faints- ...but if I didn't reply to you, blame the little fainting incident, don't worry about my health, and just keep 'em comin'~!**

**Because of the fast response, I'm not even going to wait a week (like was the original plan) before posting this!! 8DD **

**..but once I get through the other two already-written chapters, you're all going to be stuck on the same updating schedule as dA... which is no schedule, and means writers block, spur-of-the-moment raving and, of course, my list of excuses that are becoming more famous than Cornellia Funke (not really 8D )**

**Sooo... also, look forward to some card game allusions. The main one being 'War'. I'm putting an explanation on how to play at the bottom, so if you don't know how to play War, go down there! 8D **

**Disclaimer: I own D. Gray-Man and Spark is now being fed constantly by Dominic. (**_**Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire**_** fans know that translates into, "If I owned it the universe would collapse" )**

Allen was nursing a new bruise on his face while Kanda once again looked murderous, it was quite understandable, as Allen had ducked behind him to use as a human shield when Greg had tried (unsuccessfully, making Allen pretty happy) to punch him. Still, Allen had been hit very hard by Kurtus a bit later, and twice more by a combo of the two. The result of a flying chair thrown askew by a certain white haired teen had hit another, not yet involved man, in the head. The result had been a full-out bar brawl.

Which was the main reason why the exorcists were out here now, back in the carriage, searching for another place to rest for the night. Allen was once again cuffed to the lanturn stick, tugging at it absentmindedly at random intervals. Kanda sat across from him, glaring hard and rarely blinking as Lenalee tried to humor him, perhaps calming him down some so that he didn't twitch so very much. Lavi and Komui sat beside Allen, both occasionally glancing over at the silent boy who did nothing much more than look out the window in a daze.

"Allen, why are you travelling with Cross, anyway?" Lavi asked, trying to arouse their catch from his silent stupor. Allen blinked slowly and turned his head.

"He found me, and if he hadn't I probably would've died. I had innocence, so he trained me. That's about all there is to it," Allen said in a smooth monotone, as though he had given this or some similar explanation to many people over the past years. Come to realize it, Lavi didn't even know how long Allen had been with Cross.

Well, it was quite natural to not know much about someone whom you had just met hours before, but it wasn't so normal when that person in particular you had happened to be trying to find for almost a month... and the person they were travelling with, several long years.

Being a Bookman, his sensors were perked and he realized he wasn't going to get any sleep if he didn't find an answer to the question right then and there. "How long have you been with him?"

"Five years this December," Allen answered, still in the monotonous voice. Lavi choked, Lenalee gaped, Kanda blinked and Komui almost fell out of the carriage. Allen just went back to staring out the window, as though mocking their reactions to learning...

Learning...

Learning he had just been living with the man who had quite possibly tried every end of the spectrum, and might've easily created some new ends, for almost five years as the equivalent of a servant!

And there were a _lot_ of types of servants in this day and age.

"_F-five years?_" Lavi choked out, hoping he had heard wrong, but just being a Bookman made that unlikely. Everyone else having similar reactions to him just made it more unlikely his ears had failed so suddenly. Allen turned around and frowned deeply with a heated glare that would forever be etched in their nightmares.

"Yes."

No one spoke to him for a long time.

It wasn't much of a long trip. Short and sweet, supposedly, but it seemed so long to the occupants in the carriage. Lavi was straining to keep his eyes open, mostly out of worry about the younger boy whom they had recently abducted from an alley way. Kanda dozed quietly and Lenalee switched places with Lavi for the final leg of the trek, allowing the two siblings to sleep on each other's shoulder.

Leaving Lavi practically alone in a carriage with the apprentice of one of the most fearsome generals in the history of the Black Order. Sure, Kanda would probably wake up the moment anything happened, and Lenalee and Komui were right there, ready to be jostled awake at any sudden movement, but nevertheless, Lavi was still the only one awake other than the white haired boy, who was still staring out the window.

Like he had been for the past half hour, staring off into space and the stars and the sky as though it was like nothing he had ever seen before. More questions rose in Lavi's archive-like mind, and he decided to voice them, as much out of curiosity as the need to stay awake.

"What do you see out there, anyway, Allen?" Lavi asked. Allen turned his head to face. Lavi realized something as he did. Allen was just as tired as the rest of them, maybe even more tired. There were bags under his eyes that were exaggerated by the late hour and the odd glow of the lanturn. Lavi had the impression he was going to keel over at any moment into and perhaps fall into a comatose. He quickly changed his question.

"When was the last time you got some rest?" He asked, perhaps a little louder than necessary, as Kanda stirred lightly in his sleep before relaxing again and the quiet snores once again resumed along with the steady rise and fall of his chest. Allen sighed quietly.

"I dun know," He mumbled. "'While, I was working when you found me," He said. "I cant help you guys, I 'unno where Master is. 'Im wont say neither," His words were slurred by lack of sleep. Being tired apparently loosened his tongue in more than one way. "Worked too hard an' didn' rest much... needed ta... used to it, s'pose..."

Lavi realized the way he was pronouncing some letters were similar to the dialect from a not-so wealthy british village. Probably England, as far as he could make out. It wasn't the blank, almost unaccented speech he had used before. Allen must have been _extremely_ tired.

"Too much..." He said in his hushed, slurred voice, "Hurry up..." Lavi sighed. Empathy. Of all the emotions Bookman were allowed to have, why empathy to be 'the one'?

"Allen," He said. The white haired boy snapped partly out of his daze to try and look at him with unfocused eyes. "Get some sleep, alright? You look like the living dead."

Allen smirked for some odd reason. "Living dead? Haha... guessa maybe," He muttered. His head fell over onto the glass of the carriage window and he didn't move for a while. A long while.

000

"Lavi, did you drug him while we were asleep?" Lenalee asked, waking up to find Allen still completely out of it. Lavi shook his head innocently. He had expected Allen to sleep for a while, but he had slept through the entire remainder of the trip in the carriage and even though Kanda carrying him up the stairs and dropping him onto the hard hotel matress.

"No, really, I just told him to go to sleep, cause he looked more tired than any of us!" Lavi said hurriedly. "He didn't wake up!" He cried, trying to emphasise that it wasn't his fault. Komui sighed.

"Let's just let him be tired. If there's one thing I pity about Cross's apprentice, it's going to be how hard he'll be working..." He muttered. No one apparently heard him, and the three continued to banter amongst themselves. Komui had no problems with that, but he did wish someone would take notice of him.

"How do we wake him up then?" Lenalee cried, perhaps a bit louder than necessary.

"I don't know!" Lavi cried back, equally unnecessary with volume.

"Maybe we throw him into water..." Kanda suggested quietly. Lenalee and Lavi turned at the words of the appropriate volume, quite sure they had heard something wrong.

"Dont you mean, 'throw water _on_ _him_'?" Lavi asked, his volume down to match Kanda's hush. The japanese shook his head.

"Throw him _into_ _water_," He repeated again, a smirk plastering itself on his face. Lavi and Lenalee shuddered.

"But... he'd drown..."

"_Exactly_."

Lenalee and Lavi turned to face each other, almost surprised into laughing because of the looks of horror etched onto each other's faces. But that was almost. They stared at each other with horrified looks on their faces as Kanda cackled in the background. They had realized Allen had been able to really get under his skin the previous day, but...

"...I suggest we get some breakfast..." Komui muttered, deciding the youngers had had enough time to banter and argue over killing the boy, which certainly wasn't about to happen as long as he was the only link to Cross that they had.

Lenalee and Lavi just were grateful that Kanda had agreed to postpone the murder until after noodles.

000

Allen honestly hadn't slept in a very long time. However long it was exactly, he wasn't sure, but it had been at least two days. He had been too busy to do anything, except destroy Akuma and pay money. Food and looking normal and sleep had suddenly taken the back seat. He had no money and no time for _anything_ but his purpose... and quelling one of his most horrible nightmares, but that was a personal interest.

His eyelids were incredibly heavy when he realized they were closed. He couldn't quite recall when he had finally gotten the chance to sleep, but it had felt like too short a time. But there was a rule, apparently. If you are human, look like a human, possess a human body, or do anything else that gets you stuck in a human-like form, unless you're in a coma or so heavily drugged you might never wake up, you cannot sleep past thirteen hours. It just doesn't work like we want it to.

It was just a fact of life. Life works like that, it uses facts, not rules. So you just cant ever sleep as long as you would like to. Constant background noise certainly doesn't help much, either.

He couldn't make out exactly what was being said, it had been several moments since he had awoken and been conscious of being awake and the sounds were suddenly much less than they had been when he woke. Or at least he guessed they must have been louder, otherwise, he wouldn't have woken up to such soft sounds.

The only soft sound he would wake up to included animals, people, and the sound of a wine bottle or vodka being uncorked.

And then there was the odd sound that was innocence, which sounded like some sort of wail, but that was another story altogether.

The odd, uneven clunking of shoes going away filled the layer of air near the floor, not being loud enough to fill the room, and he counted three pairs leaving. Three... but why would there be three people with him?

The faces of a beautiful dark haired girl, a friendly red haired boy and a moody but plenty teaseable dark haired samuri entered his mind. He groaned lightly, without really realizing he had made the sound, as he remembered the earlier day's events. He recognized the dull ache— which he had somehow ignored before— as a result of the handcuff that had kept his arm up and bruised it steadily as he pulled against it through the night.

He tugged lightly at it and realized they had removed it. His right arm was free, as was his left, as though that would have been an issue, though. Thinking back, he had always known he could easily break the handcuff should he want to. It had always been the looming threat of three exorcists and his fatuge that had held him back from playing that card.

A Ten of Spades, it was. The enemy not knowing his trump, so he would be free to use it whenever they were not alert. A true trump, though not entirely a powerful one, it was certainly a better than most. Not an ace, but still very good.

Slowly, Allen opened his eyes, adjusting the orbs to the now-bright light of the late morning. It was a beautiful day, he admitted, even though he hadn't even looked anywhere but the ceiling above him. It was white, very pale white.

And for some reason, it reminded him of a barret...

_Three pairs of feet left the room, four brought me into the carriage_.

He jolted up, realizing that they might have wanted him to let his guard down. His head spun around, white hair flying around his head like a halo as he scanned the room at impossible speed for whichever exorcist they left behind. Was it the girl? No, they seemed too protective of her to leave her with him. The red head? He might actually have a chance if it was him, the red head actually seemed to have some humanity. The japanese man—Kanda? It had to be him. It had to be him. He had sworn he would kill him the moment—

"Sorry, I had to get the kids out so they wouldn't hear," The dark haired man said, his white barret a stunning contrast to his frizzled black hair. It must have been quite a night he missed.

Allen narrowed his eyes. "Quite odd for someone of the upper levels to address exorcists as 'kids'," He hissed quietly. He was pissed. He had messed up.

The man gave a laugh. "Lenalee is my little sister," He replied, "The exorcists get to be family after you have one to adore first," Allen snorted. He highly doubted two siblings had both gotten into the Order. He supposed Lenalee had to be the girl, though, just by process of illimination. At least he knew two of his captor's names now, instead of them being simple faces.

"Right," Allen said, playing along, "So you two are brother and sister, great. Really great, I'm stuck in a family organization," The man shrugged.

"Not exactly like that," He said.

"Why would you send your _sister_ to the apprentice of the biggest womanizer on Earth, anyway?" Allen asked.

"I had a reason," The man said, still using the calm voice. "But I didn't come to gloat about my little sister, as much as I'd love to," He sighed, as though greatly disappointed he couldn't talk forever about his sister. Then, he straightened up, business-like once again. "Allen, I have a proposition for you."

Allen twitched, biting the inside of his mouth as he glared, "I already refused your offer, sir, my apologies. The answer wont be changing."

The man nodded, as though he expected this, which he probably had. Allen prepared himself for another assault at his buried desires.

"I'm not asking if there's anything we can give you," The man said quietly, the typical tone for trying to strike a bargin, "But Allen... is there something you really want to do? Not a physical possession, but an experience?" Allen blinked. That certainly hadn't been something he had expected, but the whole time with the exorcists so far had stumped him slightly. He couldn't figure out their logic, keeping him whole. Keeping him with them and trying to convince him rather than simply forcing everything out of him.

He knew they could do it, and they knew they could do it. It was all a matter of his cards. It was all because they hadn't seen his Anti-Akuma weapon. That was all that was holding them back, his training and his trumps. It was endlessly nerve-wracking, knowing that at any moment, something could go wrong and every trump he held would be opened like a book for them. Not just the Ten of Spades, but the King, Queen, Jack, and Ace as well.

If the enemy knew you had a Royal Straight Flush and they didn't... well, there wasn't exactly much you could do to stop them from taking a shot at you to try to steal your cards. Or just kill you for having them in the last gambol. The one with the biggest stakes and the largest prize.

He had to go for it. Go for something insanely huge, large, something completely impossible to stop the fist in the air and save all the cards. The problem was, it wasn't a lie. The hugest, most impossible experience he could wish for was something that he really truly wanted. The simple card game sooned turned into war.

_Jack of Clubs_

"I want to kill the Earl, if you absolutely must know," He said, slipping into the monotone he used so often.

"How do you mean?"

Allen blinked. "How else would I mean. I want to kill the fat marshmellow," He snapped. The man covered his mouth to stifle laughs as Allen used the nickname he had given to the Earl years earlier. It was better than 'Santa', in any case. He didn't want to shame Saint Nicholas.

When the laughter stopped finally, the man tried to clarify again. "No, I mean, is there any particular way you would like him to die?" Allen allowed his mouth to drop down. Was this man saying he thought the Order could kill the Earl so easily? The look on his face must have spoken for him, because the man shook his head quickly and hurried to clarify himself again.

"By this, I mean, do you yourself want to kill him or would you be satisfied with having a large part in his killing?" The man asked. "We cant promise you yourself will be the one to actually kill him, but what if you were so fundamental in his downfall, all he thought of was how you killed him?"

_Jack of Clubs vs Jack of Diamonds_

Allen could feel it in the back of his mind. The horror he had. The terrible fear of the Earl and the power the Earl had over him. What would happen to him if he lost the control the Earl had? Would Cross still be there?

The offer was so tempting, even if he didn't finish the battle. If in the short run, he lost, but the long run, he ended up winning...

How dare he even imagine that? How dare he act like that? It was impossible, absolutely obscene. But Komui kept talking, kept feeding the malice he held.

"Cross Marian has the ability to face the Earl. It may sound insane, but Cross is truly the strongest general, and he has the ability to end this war. We need him, and if you help us find him, it will surely lead to the Earl's downfall. He'll be dead, thinking of the person who found the one who could kill him."

He imagined it. His mind pulled up images without his brain's permission. The Earl's golden eyes, burning with hatred as he glared heatedly at the man in front of him, even though the man wasn't Allen. The eyes held the absolute hate that was held for Allen and only for Allen. The sweet knowledge that Allen had been the one to kill him, even if indirectly, righting everything wrong with himself in one fell swoop.

"Allen, we need you to lead us to Cross. We need you to help us. Cross has something that can utterly destroy the Earl, forever. He will never come back again and you will be able to do anything you like without having to worry about the Order anymore. We will never disturb you again if you will help us this one time."

How did this man know Allen was even going to still exist when this war ended, if it did? For all he knew, Allen might simply be destroyed at the end, or maybe before then, considering he would be with exorcists the whole while. That one word was enough to put him in danger. Exorcists were a danger, a wolf in sheep's clothing to him.

But the fleece was always so fine....

"And... Allen, if you agree, the Order will also try our hardest to cover half of Cross's debts if we are able to. We don't want you collapsing, no matter what you may think of us."

...**Half?**

_Jack of Diamonds vs Jack of Clubs vs Queen of Diamonds_

_Queen beats Jack_

"What's your name?" He asked, standing up. A cold feeling washed over him as he changed his personality in an instant. He held out his gloved right hand to the man in the barret.

The man blinked in suprise before also standing up and shaking his hand. "My name is Komui Lee, I'm head of departments at the Black Order."

The boy smiled, giving Komui the firmest handshake he had, hoping the signal would be transmitted. He was going through this for two, very fine-lined reasons.

"My name is Allen Walker, pleasure to do business with you, Mr Lee."

**How to play War (the abridged version):**

**2 players, but can be more. Played with Joker. Pass the cards around until the deck is gone, each turn all players place one card face down on the tabel. After everyone's placed a card, flip them all over and the person with the highest level card wins and takes all played cards into their pile. The person with the most cards in their pile at the end of the game wins. Tied rounds have a second round between the winners. weak to strong 1-10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace, Joker (Joker beats all)**


	3. Abaddon

**Christ, I hate school computers… *sobs* **

**VERY IMPORTANT! TRES IMPORTANTE! **

**My hard drive crashed. I'm uploading this at school, and am writing with a pencil and paper. I wont be able to type often until my computer is fixed or I get a new one. I probably wont be able to answer many reviews, but please keep them coming ;-; I need moral support with no computer and my exams coming up…**

Lenalee, Lavi and Kanda sat quietly in the lower part of the hotel where they had chosen to board, which included a new addition— a small cafe` which served several simple dishes for occasional meals. It was an idea that had only recently taken hold.

Kanda was rather angry (read as: incredibly pissed off) that the shop did not serve noodles for any meal, but rather, _sandwiches_. Oh yes, sure, it was a new idea, only a hundred years old. Ye ol' John Montagu, forth Earl of Sandwich had to have certainly been vain to name a food after himself. Much less a food he invented because he wanted to eat and play cards at the same time.

And honestly, wasn't it a bit heretical that they were eating food named after an _Earl_? It was an unrelated Earl, but it was still an odd thought...

Kanda sighed and gripped the rye bread that surrounded the ham from a perfectly good pig until it almost whiddled itself in half. Lavi and Lenalee were striking a up a conversation without his attention nor input, what little he might willingly give.

"What do you think's with Allen?" Lenalee asked. "He's so edgy..."

"I know, he's worse than Yu—"

"—Somehow that sounds like you're insulting me, Lavi."

"No, wrong 'you'," Lavi amended quickly, "I mean, yeah," Lenalee sighed. She knew what he had meant, but it had been irresistible to poke in a little joke. Now it seemed like a stupid, tiring joke, but maybe that was because she had stayed up so late the previous night.

"I wonder if he's awake yet..." She muttered.

Kanda grunted a small "I hope not," though he wasn't quite heard.

"I kind of wonder how we're going to convince him..." Lavi muttered. "I mean, he seems dead-set on being as difficult as possible... well, I guess he is Cross's apprentice or something..."

"We might end up forcing him..." Lenalee muttered darkly. Lavi shuddered and Kanda's ears perked up at the familiar aura that usually surrounded him himself. "If he doesn't cooperate, who knows what we'll have to do to make him help us..."

"I wouldn't worry about that," The trio spun around quickly from their table to look at Komui entering the through the café's door. A satisfied, triumphant smile on his face. "He's agreed to aid us."

"What?"

"Why— how, brother?"

"STRIKE!"

They all turned to look at Lavi. The redhead blinked, looking away from a particularly pretty noble. "...it's not what it seems like," He muttered.

"Don't turn into another womanizer, _please_," A voice from the doorway moaned. The three turned again to see the white haired boy leaning in the doorway, covering his eyes with one hand, as though in exasperation.

Lenalee and Kanda glanced at each other, ignoring Lavi. "He really accepted, just like _that?_" Lenalee asked in disbelief.

"If you'd prefer I be more difficult, that can be quite arranged," He muttered, a small smirk slowly growing on his face. Komui paled.

"Don't encourage him," Komui hissed to the three, "We're already going to make the Order almost bankrupt with what we've promised him!"

"What, really?" Allen asked innocently. A face the three exorcists had yet to see on him. "I would have thought that the Order had loads more than that," The three exorcists blinked. How much money exactly had they had to promise this boy to get him to talk and act somewhat civil, exactly?

The silence seemed to stretch on forever, and somehow, the boy had a small smile on his face the entire time. It was unnerving how he was suddenly so... happy, they might try for. But it was strangely creepy in a way as well.

Once again, Komui was forced to be the daredevil to break the silence. "Shall we get down to business, then?" He asked. Allen shrugged, looking over at Lenalee, Lavi and Kanda as he did. They all nodded.

"..I vote we go somewhere less inhabited, then," Allen muttered, looking around the cafe`. "I'm not quite sure if they mean this literally, but walls have ears..." His narrowed eyes swept across the room, resting on several points. Places he was pinpointing for being ideal to bug and tap, most likely.

"We could go back to the room," Lenalee suggested. Lavi and Kanda got up from their seats, pushing the chairs back with a scraping sound and dropping a few guinea on the table. They saw Allen's eyes flicker to the coins, but the boy just sighed and walked out the door, muttering something about small change.

The room seemed much more crowded, even if there was just one more person, and yet they hadn't increased their number inside it, it was just that that one other person was moving around just as much as the other four now.

Allen sat on the bed and Lavi joined him there. Komui and Lenalee pulled the two chairs out from under the small coffee table in the room, and Kanda sat on that, not quite in the mood for sitting with the white haired boy and Lavi.

"So..." Allen began, "Where do you want to begin, exactly?" He asked.

Lavi, Lenalee, Kanda and Komui looked between each other, waiting for someone to say something. Allen covered his eyes and shook his head in disbelief. They hadn't even planned farther than bribing him into this?

"...why were you looking for my Master, then?" Komui's head shot up.

"You don't know?" He asked. Allen shook his head.

"Master never really told me much of anything," He admitted.

"So why did you fight so hard against helping us yesterday?" Lavi asked. Allen blushed lightly.

"Um... habit..." Lavi didn't want to know what brought that habit on. Komui cleared his throat awkwardly and tried to formulate an explanation in his mind while yet another silence hung around the group.

Was it really so awkward for exorcists and alternate party to be attempting to work together? Apparently so.

"Allen..." Komui began, attention turning back onto him, "Before General Cross left the Black Order, he was assigned a mission to get a certain item."

Allen nodded. In his mind, he laid out the cards for that invisible game of war. He glanced at his hand momentarily.

"Soon after receiving this mission, Cross cut off all ties with the Order and vanished completely. The theory for a long time was that he was dead, but of course, a lovely madam in France was kind enough to inform us that he had been quite alive for some time. She also mentioned he had an apprentice and that was how we learned about you, Allen," Komui continued explaining. Allen nodded and silently cursed Madam Fesia. Damn woman couldn't keep her mouth shut. Old gossip mill.

"The Order decided that if Cross had cut off his communication, then he must simply not want to return or that he had obtained the item and learned of it's abilities and refused to give it up," Komui stated wearily. Apparently it had made quite the uproar in the Order when this had gotten out.

Allen frowned as he looked at his hand. He had lost a Jack of Clubs, which was now in the Order's pile. He still had the Ten, Jack, Queen, King and Ace of spades. Enough for a win in poker, had that been the chosen game. He counted up everything as though he were playing Black Jack, and held the cards close like he were in Go Fish, kept his face calm like in Poker, but he would use them as he was playing War.

"What item was this, exactly?" Allen asked. He had the misfortune to come across quite a few magical items in his training with his Master, and some of which he had been instructed to keep, and the rare few Cross had actually told him to use when certain situations were to arise.

But those items weren't his King.

"It was a sword," Komui said, "A short sword, not good for slashing rather than stabbing. I believe it was similar to a bronze centurion sword, though with a guard. I only saw a single picture of it," Komui mused.

An image flashed through Allen's mind. An image of a sword that his Master had gone through actually very little trouble to recover. It had been very short, the entire dagger-like weapon barely the length of his forearm and with a long crescent shaped guard that was a third of the blade, which sported small spikes within the guarded area.

The handle was half the size of the blade, curved for better grip, a ruby embedded on the center of the hilt, a dark, black design running through the center of the blade. It had been rusted and chipped. It twitched when Allen had tried to touch it, though Cross had said nothing against doing such.

"It was called Abaddon," Komui finished.

Allen's mouth dropped open.

"_Abaddon?_" He croaked. "_Abaddon as in The Destroyer?_" Komui blinked, surprised.

"You know what it means?" He asked. Allen nodded and looked at Komui in utter disbelief as the exorcists looked on in utter confusion.

Allen put a hand over his eyes and shook his head in _complete and utter disbelief._

_**"You sent my Master to kill the Earl with a sword that once destroyed the world?!" **_

**ACCURACY NOTE-**** Abbadon is a biblical reference **_**"Their king was the angel in charge of the deep pit. In Hebrew his name was **__**Abaddon**__**, and in Greek it was Apollyon.**_**" Revelation 9:11 **

**As far as we know, Abaddon **_**did not destroy the world.**_** It had no part in Noah's Flood and everything Allen will later say is NOT based on HISTORICAL FACT. **

**Furthermore, Abaddon may not be yet another word for the devil, but just the harbinger of doom. I neglected to read the entire passage, and I don't remember everything in it. Follow the meaning in the story, but do not latch onto it as fact. **

**The idea of Abaddon as a sword is belonging to Hoshino Katsura. This idea came when she published her early series "Zone", which is sort of a prequel to what is now D. Gray-man. I have no idea what the sword type is and thus cannot accurately describe it, so I guessed on the type. Forgive inaccuracy on that part as well. **


	4. In Alleys

**4 AM computer just got fixed tonight, I should really be asleep since I'm sick and LITERALLY in the middle of exam week. Thought I'd get this up-- but please, people... mention something odd that I've put in that ISNT Allen's personality. I'm glad you love him like this an' all, but really.... spare me a little and gimme what you think on the plot? I have his new character down in my mind, now I want someone to tell me they like the plot so far and speculate a bit on what's going to happen!**

**...oh, hint, my weird wording is deliberate sometimes. I've already dropped at least one hint in previous chapters and there is at least three in this one... spec, please? **

**Disclaimer: You know I dont own it and that's probably a REALLY GOOD thing...**

Allen's eyes returned to the cold stare that he had given them when they had first met in that alley several hours ago. Not even an entire day. "You are all officially retarded." He muttered, keeping his face unnervingly straight.

Komui blinked several times, somehow managing to miss his later sentence. "Abaddon didn't destroy the world," he said.

"_Yes_, it did!" Allen insisted.

"Abaddon was the anti-akuma weapon that was forged seven-thousand years ago and it killed the Earl back then," Komui stated firmly.

"Abaddon murdered countless people on it's way to the Earl, and when it did finally reach the Earl, it was in the hands of an exorcist that was _not_ it's conformer! It caused the flooding of the world and allowed the Earl to be revived!" Allen said stubbornly, clenching his teeth.

"Those people were Akuma and the Earl was revived because of— No one knows what revived him, what are you talking about?"

"Not all of them were Akuma. They were incredibly more advanced back then and it was nearly impossible to tell a human from an Akuma because they didn't act on impulse like the ones nowadays do— Abaddon killed without even letting its _proper_ accomodator know what he was doing."

"Abaddon had only one accomodator at a time—"

"—And Abaddon had very bad luck and it's accomodators just kept getting killed off and was immediately found by another 'accomodator'?"

Lenalee leaned over to Lavi, whom she was sitting across from. "What are they arguing about?" She whispered.

"As sad as it is for a Bookman to admit it, I have no clue," Lavi replied. "The true story of Abaddon is something you don't learn until you're an official Bookman... I've been banned from the subject until then," Lenalee coughed softly, a sign that she didn't believe a word of that but would let it slide that one time.

"I am not doing _anything_ that involves that damned sword!" Allen cried. "I'm screwed enough as it is without having that thing trying to do me in too!" He stood up off the bed and headed to the door, clear that he meant exactly what he said. Komui jumped up as well and shot desperate looks to the exorcists, who also jumped up, blocking the door.

Allen glared as they cut him off. "I don't even know anything," He growled, "It's pointless to keep me around, just let me walk away..."

Komui sighed, adjusting his barret and pushing his glasses up his nose. "I'm sorry, Allen, but we really cant let you go now, no matter what you believe."

Allen's face seemed to twist painfully as he continued to glare at his once-again captors. "I will have nothing to do with anything that involves _that sword_. If you're so desperate, use your own pathetic exorcists, don't pick on the middle-man," He hissed, his words dripping with more poison that the exorcists had though he would be able to muster.

He was scary. Kanda himself flinched, as though there had been some invisible animal that had bitten him very suddenly. Komui chewed on the inside of his lips, trying to find some other way to stop the boy. Something told him that he might not care that there were three exorcists blocking the door. "We aren't asking you to—"

Allen spun, and in a blinding flash of light, something shattered. The four Black Order workers stood stunned for a moment, Lavi, Lenalee and Komui falling over in shock, Kanda backing into a wall and using it for support. Something sharp was digging into his right hand.

Their vision returned quickly, displaying the shard of glass that had lodged itself into Kanda's sword hand. He scowled, knowing it wouldn't be long before he healed but it would be a nuisance until then. They all looked for the source of the glass and all found it quite quickly.

The window was shattered, the pack Allen had with him gone, and naturally, the white haired apprentice nowhere to be seen.

"Well shit," Kanda voiced.

000

Allen raced along the rooftops, not sure exactly how long he could stay unseen when he was so out in the open. It was fortune that there were many chimneys and the early morning gray and the smoke hid him from view rather well.

He pulled on a sleeve of his maroon trench, about the same color as the roofing tiles, as he ran, not bothering to button it up more than the first two buttons. The back flapped out like wings behind him. He might as well be a beacon on these rooves, and so he had to keep strictly to the rusted reddish brown rooves.

"Idiots," He muttered, some hair snapping into his face and then back out to the side of his head. "Trying to misuse Abaddon," He shifted the bag that was tied around his shoulder. The gray leather was large and heavy, sewn together here and there where it had split over the years, but he had carried it a long while and it was almost second nature to have it with him at all times now. Though this time around, he cradled it, not wanting to have the various items inside damaged from his chaotic dashes and dodging the dips and rises.

One thick, gloved left hand slid down to the bag and poked it, a small wiggle from inside it greeted him. He unzipped a few inches to allow the squirming yellow ball to escape the confines of the bag. It's thin yellow wings were paper thin and yet spread out as though they were made of fur were held in with two horns, the body shiny. The tail was long and ended with a puff much thicker but similar looking to the wings, and the four small animal-like limbs on it's lower end stretching, opening small clawed fingers each time.

"Sorry, Tim, it wasn't that crowded, was it?" A low hissing sound made its way from the small golden ball, who's center part had split open to reveal a long row of sharp pointed teeth that looked like they belonged on a barracuda, not a golden flying fuzzball.

"I'm sorry!" He apologized quickly. "I really am, but I couldn't have the exorcists finding you, Master would be mad at both of us..." The ball closed the line of teeth and tipped downward in a way that suggested it was sorrow for growling. "It's fine," Allen sighed. "I do miss him... Master Cross is a bastard. We're just tools to him..." He made a face and took a long jump off one inn's rooftop onto a much lower tin roof that made him stick out like that one exorcist would in a field of flowers.

But it was flat and easier to run on. Mind, Allen had no problem whatsoever with keeping his balance, but he was certainly not in the mood for such focus after that meeting with not-so-welcomed people. Kidnappers, exorcists, idiots... he would let other people decide the definite insult in there, but it was all the same to him, but more importantly running in the center of a flat rooftop would buy him more cover than a slanted one ever would, regardless of however many chimneys and plants there were, and camouflage wouldn't matter all that much if he couldn't be seen anyway.

And then his eyes both singed. The left one's pupil turned a dark shade of red and the white shifted to the darkest black. He bit his tongue. "Of all times, _now?_" Was the only angered comment he could get out before a large black shape flew over his head.

000

It didn't take them long to run out of the small room and begin searching for the boy they had been trying to catch for a month now already, and quite possibly that month would be nothing compared to what would happen if he got away now. Lavi, Lenalee and Kanda all spread out to different parts of the city, Komui with Lenalee, and contacting through their golems.

It was certainly not going to be a fun chase, that much they knew very quickly, as the town was large and filled with many places to hide. Enough places to hide a man for weeks, maybe longer if they went out occasionally, but the apprentice was certainly going to try to get out of town as soon as he could.

Frowning, Lavi jumped over some fallen items that had been knocked off a stand. He twirled his hammer between his fingers, more of it denied to leave his skin. Lavi could easily stop twirling and the hammer would still be attached to the skin on his fingers. Innocence was certainly a strange thing to be so attached to its users and yet still so willing to turn them into Fallen when it decided they were no longer worthy.

The cobblestone clacked under the steel heals of his issued boots, and people parted the way for him, partly because of his uniform, but probably most of them parted because he would have charged them down otherwise. He hoped they would all continue moving just as quickly as he went on, because he was only scanning the streets briefly before turning his single eye to scan the rooftops and if he were about to run into a pole he wouldn't know it.

He bumped into a lady in a pink feathered hat that hadn't managed to move quite quickly enough and shouted a swift apology before righting his balance and dashing forward again, scanning the rooftops, where Allen had surely run onto. Flat roofs, slanted roofs, roofs that were virtually non-existent for the foliage growing on them, rusted roofs... every sort of roof with a dip or dodge or odd color to make someone stand out on it. If he could get a bird's eye view of the area, he could see everyone and everything, even on the roofs. It wasn't as though Allen was hard to miss with his white hair and maroon jacket...

Lavi returned his eyes to the cobblestone just in time to avoid stepping on a dog and swerved into the first alley he found, activating his hammer with a sigh and tried to regain his breath as the hammer's handle slowly grew in his grasp. Within three seconds, the hammer had grown to the best size for riding on it, large enough to grip but thin enough to be flexible when something came in the way of the path or he was coming up from a narrow space.

"Extend," He commanded in a soft voice to not attract any more unnecessary attention to his little dark alley. The hammer jerked in his partly-gloved hand, pulling him up roughly off the ground and into the air. The buildings rose up around him, displaying the layout of the part of the city they were currently holding in. He scanned the rooftops expectantly, hoping to find the glimmer or white or a swoosh of maroon to give away Allen's position, wherever it may be. If he had noticed Lavi, he might be hiding in the shadows of a roof or plants...

His eyes found it quickly. Allen didn't yet know his Innocence, and so he could not ever prepare to be spotted from above. In fact, Allen seemed slightly panicked about something, judging by the way he was jumping rooftops like a cat would stones on a lake, and whatever had gotten him going was not Lavi's hammer.

Lavi then noticed a dark shape some ten or twenty feet in front of Allen, with a long body and limbs, leaping rooftops at a slightly slower pace, their long claws shining a slight silver in the glare of the sun. It was losing its distance from Allen with amazing pace, as it continued to turn around often and stare at the apprentice for who knows how long before resuming full-speed sprint. Whatever it was, it must have done something to get the kid mad. Even from the distance, Lavi could tell that Allen definitely did not look like he was about to let it get away.

Suddenly, the gap was much smaller and Allen lept forward, tackling the creature and knocking it and himself off the rooftops, falling them into an alley.

He shortened his hammer and sent it flying to as close to the area as he could get without being spotted and crashed into the side of the building as he attempted to stop. Several pots on a shelf fell on him, but otherwise he had managed a fairly uneventful landing. Mostly. But he certainly didn't want to stick around to meet the owner of the plants if they should happen to come around at an inconvenient time.

He grunted as his leg jarred a bit when he began to sprint down the back street towards the alley he had seen Allen knock the thing into. The city smelled like burning things back here, in the alleys, and the lights seemed to grow dim as he ran, farther away from the main streets. Farther away from the bustling people and the lit street lamps of the morning. With every few feet he got the most morbid feeling that whatever he found in that alley he wasn't going to like one bit.

He rounded another corner, the second, he would have to stop right before the third if he wanted to catch Allen off guard. There were no windows around this place. Like some sort of horrifying omen to tell him this was not meant to be seen. He breathed out a slow sigh and began to slow down just a bit.

A few crumbled bricks and shattered or stacked pieces of wood littered about the way. A hay stack was pushed up against the wooden wall of what on the other side would be a stable. A pair of broken wheels lay up against the cracked stone walls and animal droppings—the right size to be a dog's— stained the dusty ground. Lavi dodged and jumped them all.

When he reached the end of the way with an abrupt halt, almost sending him into the back clearing where Allen was with the thing he had dragged down with him.

Lavi edged his face along the wall, his cheek brushing the brick and his headband pulled up to keep his hair down against his skull as possible. He leaned closer to the edge just enough to manage to look into the alley with his left eye and see what was going on within the windowless, brick confines.

What Allen had trapped, he could now see, was an Akuma. A long, skinny, cat-like level two, with large ears and things sticking out of its yellow face that looked strangely like whiskers.

But what made Lavi's jaw almost drop with a sound like a gong was the huge white claw that was pinning the Akuma onto the wall. The huge chunk of bright whiteness was simply, in a word, beautiful, if a claw of monstrous proportions that looked as through one wrong brush against it could result in loss of life or limb. It didnt seem to have a jagged end on it at all, even the parts sticking out for slashing and grabbing seemed to be elegantly curved, and the very skin— or was it shell?— on it seemed to be layered like a work off a loom.

It took Lavi what seemed to be an eternity to realize it was Allen's arm he was looking at. Allen-bad mouthing, ragged looking, scar faced, disagreeable more-so than Yuu-Walker had this arm.

It took another long second for Lavi to realize that huge, beautiful arm was Allen's innocence. He had always thought innocence was possibly the stupidest name they could have given for the weapon of demonic destruction, but just managing to glance it out of the corner of his eye, it with its brilliant white smoothness and the faint glow that surrounded it, was certainly what the weapon had been named for.

There was no possible reason Lavi could come up with that led to the reason it was called 'Grave'.

And then, Lavi snapped back to reality, remembering who that arm was truly attached to. He wasnt sure what made him remember how Allen acted and talked and how dangerous he seemed at times, but he was quite sure it had to do with the horrifying look he was giving to the Akuma. His face was twisted darkly, half hidden in shadow, a faint red glow seeming to haunt his left cheek bones, and the exposed part wrinkled as he snarled at the demon he had pinned to the wall with that unrealistic claw.

"Spit. Him. Out." He hissed, just loud enough for Lavi to hear around his corner. "Spit him out right now!" The Akuma whizzed and hissed something Lavi could make no sense of, opening an extended mouth to make that sound, like a rusted train whistle. The silver claws flexed easily into a tighter hold, one that dug into the Akuma's equivalent of a shoulder.

"Spit him out or I drag him out!" Allen barked. Lavi needed no strain on his ears to hear that time. He cringed at the volume and venom that spouted so easily from Allen's barred-teeth mouth. Lavi got the feeling Allen wasn't joking about digging whoever was inside the Akuma out...

...so when the Akuma laughed at him, mocking him and saying he didn't have the guts to 'splurge it out', whatever the hell that meant, Lavi knew he wanted to look away. As Allen straightened his fingers and drew his right hand back, the one not an impossibly beautiful claw, Lavi had a train wreck scenario.

No matter how much he didn't want to look as Allen thrust his arm into the Akuma's stomach, he honestly couldn't look away


	5. Dealings

**Given that I took FOREVER to get this up, (blame 3 weeks little-to-no wireless, Shakespeare and other camps with no internet what-so-ever..... and writers block. Always blame writers block.... and Jaques-mon. He takes blame this time, too. ) I feel like this should be a lot longer... but honestly, that fight scene went through three rewrites, which is something I don't normally do. I stick with my first, 'cause if I don't like it, I don't post it. I didn't like it. A lot. And if I added in anymore dialogue jokes, Shakespeare would kick my ass.**

**...yeah, I'm going through a Shakespeare-admiring phase, I think. Sorry if it's skewed my writing style a little, but honestly? Shakespeare was/is AWESOME!**

**This was done at 2AM last night, and I was TRYING to post, but the internet decided it would go so slowly I should just kick it all. That's why this is updated now. Sorry for the RIDICULOUSLY long wait, but just FYI... I want to get past the first part of this thing just as much as everybody else. I have SO MANY THINGS I want to write in here, and most don't even happen until the early midpoint at least. The rest is blank space. I need some heeelp!**

**Brief History Lesson –**** In the 19****th century, the British LOVED spices, but had none of them, so they imported from India, which had lots of spices. At the time, a bag of pepper was near as good as gold**

**insanity – repeating the same action over and over in hopes of a different reaction**

disclaimer- screw it, this'll be the disclaimer for this story from now on. "I begged 200 bucks for a PS3, it's obvious I own nothing. I didn't even get my 200." Get it? Got it? Good.

Allen Walker was certainly the most _impossible, annoying, deranged, bastard_ that the three exorcists had ever had the misfortune to meet.

000

Lavi was frozen in the alleyway, staring at the monstrosity that had just decimated the Akuma, ripping its innards out and then stuffing them back down it's throat. Lavi hadn't ever known that Akumas had organs within them other than the winding gears and the poisonous blood-like oil that served as a lubricator and a weapon, and this was certainly not how he had imagined he was going to learn about what else there was, if he had ever even imagined it.

The claws on the left arm then clenched ruthlessly, crushing the Akuma's skeleton with a sickening scraping sound and a splitting cry from the Akuma that Lavi had even begun to pity. Within moments, nothing but a shredded mass of metal and blood was crumpled at Allen's feet, four long scorch marks on the wall where Allen had held and destroyed the Akuma.

The boy whispered something Lavi couldn't catch and turned around abruptly, not deactivating, but leaping back onto the roof with a loud explosion that seemed to have no logical purpose for being placed in the scene... until Lavi saw the shrapnel similar to the carcass that was flaking away into thewind where Allen had stood only moments prior.

Lavi grew his hammer slightly, thinking more to be around, and was glad he did, because with a small golden flicker flying through his vision at a speed he couldn't register, an Akuma appeared from behind a building only a block over, in it's evolved, level two form. A large thing like some sort of exotic animal on two legs. At a quick command, the hammer head flew forward and crashed into the Akuma, taking it by surprise and making it explode without nearly as much hassle as a normal level two would take. Another explosion from the rooftops announced yet another Akuma had appeared on the roofs and been destroyed by the child. The frightening one. And then, a shout from above alerted him to his comrade who had also seen the Akuma and come over, Lenalee and Komui were hovering above him.

"He's on the roof!" Lavi yelled at them, waving his left arm, without the grip on his hammer, in the direction of the roof, hoping Lenalee and Komui could hear him over the air-whistle.

"I see him!" Lenalee shouted down, turning her head in the direction Lavi had indicated, lowering Komui onto the nearest roof to her before sprinting off over the air towards the boy who was still causing explosions over the roofs. How many Akuma could there be up there? And how come Lavi hadn't noticed them while on his hammer?  
With a quick command of extension, Lavi flew up, the hammer handle in a slow bend, and he jumped to the roof. There, a horde of Akuma that seemed to have come out of nowhere greeted him, and they were all chanting the same thing: "WE FOUND YOU! WE FOUND YOU!"

A small growl was heard escaping from Allen's throat, angry and raw as he charged the nearest Akuma, slashing it in two with hardly a twitch of the razor-like fingers. Before Lavi could even extend his hammer, many of the Akuma— a swarm that had appeared almost literally out of nowhere— had been partly decimated, the stragglers thinning out quickly as they panicked at the sudden, rapid and violent slaying of their kin. Allen destroyed all of the ones that made moves to escape with swift, ugly attacks.

Lavi was stunned, partially from the seeming eagerness Allen had and partly because Akuma innards— something he had only recently discovered even existed— had begun to fall out of the sky in a gruesome rain, one landing on Lavi's shoulder, leaving his left eye to wander over it in an attempt to process it before he screamed and threw it off him.

And then, one managed to slip past Allen's furious barrier of gore and falling parts of Akuma, chanting to them. "FIRST WE FOUND YOU, NEXT WE'LL GET YOU! FIRST WE FOUND YOU, NEXT WE'LL GET YOU!"

Allen spun, looking towards Lavi, who had somewhat steadied himself enough to hold his hammer up. The one running away was the last as far as he could see, the one who had slipped through while the others had been vanquished in the attempt. "Hey, Red!" Allen shouted, Lavi only could assume he meant him. "Hammer, bigger! Swing up!"

Before Lavi could denounce the practicality of what Allen wanted him to do, or even protest the danger that was so blatantly obvious, he found himself enlarging his hammer and swinging it up towards the Akuma, Allen on the end of it, throwing himself up and away towards the quickly retreating monster.

"You, _idiot!_!" Kanda yelled from somewhere Lavi hadn't seen, when had he arrived? "He's getting away!" What? He had gotten the Akuma, hadn't he? Hadn't Allen killed it? After being beside him for only a few minutes of battle, he couldn't imagine the Akuma surviving an onslaught from the kid—

"Oh-- OH, FUCK!" Lavi shouted as he realized what Kanda meant. "Lenalee! LENALEE, HELP! THE KID'S GETTIN' AWAY!"

She turned from where she had been setting Komui down and realized what Lavi meant about ten times faster than it had taken Lavi, possibly because of his bluntness and Kanda's non-bluntness, but in any case, Lenalee shot off the ground and shot towards the quickly-receding Allen and the Akuma's remaining parts— he had certainly managed to slaughter the Akuma, and even at a distance, Lavi felt the distaste creep into his mouth.

Allen Walker dismantled the Akuma before they could even disintegrate, an unheard of thing. Probably not very painful, but swift and blinding. The Akuma probably didn't know what had hit it...

But Lavi couldn't help but pity the thing. Oh Christ, he pitied that Akuma.

000

"I'm not leading you to Abaddon," Allen stated firmly. "It's a problem, it's a menace, it will probably wipe out the world _again_. I don't want that and I really hope _you people_ don't, either."

The boy didn't trust people, that was the first solid thing that Komui established about his personality. He didn't trust people, or at the very least, he didn't trust members of the Black Order. "We aren't asking you to use Abaddon, Allen."

"Not _yet_," Allen hissed, "But the moment you find it, you'll change your mind, say it was part of the deal until I finally do it!" At least the boy had common sense, though the paranoia seemed to be overshadowing it a bit. Just a bit.

"Allen, please, listen to me, we don't need you to use Abaddon, we don't even intend to use Abaddon—"

"—You are a terrible liar!—"

"—to keep Abaddon out of the Earl's clutches!—"

"—kinda like you're keeping the Exorcists out of his clutches in battle—"

"—If the Earl got it we would be lost—"

"—'We'! That's all you care about!—"

"—You couldn't possibly understand the situation!—"

"—I may understand better than you, moron!—"

It was certainly not a happy day for anyone, and this conversation was not seeming to go anywhere, as morals, regulations and, in fact, more than once the past in a war that no one seemed to have the true end to was brought up.

Allen was taking these mentions much worse than Komui, though, slowly, Komui was rising to the challenge.

This made slightly overly expected eavesdropping much easier then it had to be. Lenalee stood a foot away from the door, and Lavi, whose hearing was _slightly_ better then average had resorted to plugging his ears. Whether it was a joke or not could be disputed, but the healthy scowl on his face suggested that he did not like this conversation.

"They just keep going..." He muttered. Lenalee nodded. Sighing, Lavi pushed open the door. "Hey, _SHUT UP!_" He shouted, making Lenalee wince and all the occupants of the room turn in his direction, mostly silently.

Lavi took a moment to look left, and a moment later right, before letting in another deep sigh. "_Thank you,_" His green eye was narrowed as it scanned the room ruthlessly. "If you get any louder, then the Noah's in their freaking mansion will be able to hear every word, so _pipe down_ already."

Komui had a look on his face that was distinctly reminiscent of a zombified fish, Kanda's scowl, though still in place, had allowed his mouth to open slightly, making it an almost perfectly upside down smile. Allen had an eyebrow cocked and was staring at him incredulously.

"And _how_ did you find the Noah's Mansion, pray tell?"

"I'm flipping magic, kid," Lavi growled, "It's called a sarcasm dimwit!"

"Beg pardon, but you're all assholes!" Allen snapped.

"How are we the assholes when you're the only bitch here?" Lavi clutched a thick lock of his hair. He was so tired of this argument already!

"First, you're sick! Second, you expect me _not_ to bitch? I was minding my own business when you people come and kidnap me, take me to the next town over, demand I help you with something I don't want anything to do with! What am I supposed to do, get on my knees, bark and wag my tail?"

"You don't have a tail," Kanda pointed out, smirking as though he had just said something _brilliant_, from behind Allen, who looked like he was about to bite a head off.

"Great observation, genius!" Allen yelled at him, craning his neck to get a good enough angle to glare at. "_I don't have a tail!_" He said, accenting every word as much as he possibly could.

"I said _shut it!_" Lavi barked. "You too, fem-face— Bitcher, stop smirking at him, I'm mad at you too!" Lavi spun on his heel. "Komui, start talking, Bitcher, argue _after_ he's said everything and maybe we wont get so up close and personal with swords and necks," For whatever reason, the softer voice Lavi spoke that part in was more threatening then when he was shouting.

A few silent moments passed before Komui slowly cleared his throat and rearranged his coat, particularly his collar. Ah, why had he made it so tight?

"Uhm... as I was attempting to say..." A warning look and Komui cut to the chase, "Allen, if you do not want to be involved with this, you do not have to be involved past locating Cross Marian. Lead us to him and we'll not ask anything more of you," He took a deep, sighing breath like he had been hoping for some other bargain but he was compromising.

"If you do not wish to become involved in obtaining Abaddon, you don't need to accompany us. Lead us to General Cross and then, we'll let you go free to do whatever you want, leave, come, vanish into thin air. We wont require you to do anything after we convince Cross to return to Headquarters with us," The lopsided frown on Allen's face was the big-duh sign that he had plenty of doubts about what Komui was saying. All of it, if the raised eyebrow was even more of an indication.

"Why do I doubt you?" Apparently they were indications. "Why should I _trust_ you?"

"Why shouldn't you?" Komui asked.

"Do I have to repeat the list of reasons why I'm being a bitch? I've been ambushed, kidnapped, restrained, compromised and now I'm being forced into something I don't want to be in," He rolled his shoulders in Kanda's grip, trying to loosen them.

"You don't need to lead us to Abaddon, only to Cross," Komui wondered if he hadn't illustrated that point enough yet, as it was one of the main compromises he was making.

"I despise that man with a passion that probably shouldn't be spoken aloud lest someone die of heart failure. We don't need anymore Akuma roaming about, now do we?" His smile was back, but it was so strained one could almost see the cords pulling and parting his lips. Komui winced.

"That's as far as we can compromise, I'm afraid," Komui admitted. "If you told us his position we'd probably arrive just in time for his to get to the other side of the country, we need an active tracker."

"How do you even know I can find him, though?" Allen asked, a good bit less testily then before. Wit only, now. Wit. Something akin to it, at least.

"...do you have a way?" Komui asked, suddenly worried.

"Do you think I do? You've probably gone through everything I have by now while I've been out. I don't have any tracking devices, no golem, not even letters."

"But... you're his apprentice..."

"I haven't seen Cross in a month, the last time it was in India, rendezvous with a rich spice merchant's daughter. Broke her heart, got a lot of free spices. I have pepper bags on me, actually, amazing stuff," He added absentmindedly before snapping back to the conversation at hand. "We separated at the dock because of... circumstances. I haven't seen him since."

"Do you think he's dead?" Komui asked very seriously, to which, Allen snorted.

"No, it's pretty damn hard to kill him, trust me," Allen muttered. "...puking maggots..." Came out somewhere from under his breath, as well as 'liver failure', 'evil twins', 'love diseases' and 'bricks', none of which brought up particularly welcome mental pictures.

The silence passed for minutes at least, stretching out eerily, one side waiting for the other to speak.

"...will you help us locate him as best you can?" Komui asked quietly after three long minutes. Allen let his full weight out on Kanda, stretching his arms and hanging his head before letting out a long, tired sigh.

"Are you not going to let this rest until I say I'll help?" He asked. "Is that it? 'Cause I cant imagine why else you'd keep asking when I keep saying 'no', you know the definition of insanity, right?" His neck bent up enough to flash a gray eye through his bangs at Komui.

"I do happen to know the definition of insanity, thank you very much. And yes, it was insane to ask these things of you, so, logically, we use the most insane approach we have," Allen smiled.

"Your logic is terrible, no wonder the Earl's waltzing through the world."

"How would you suggest we go about this? As you said, the Earl is currently waltzing though the world," Allen bent his elbows and pulled his balance back into his own two feet as Komui spoke, "If we're to stop that, we need your help, we must find Cross."

"It's all for the Earl?" Allen asked, his voice flat and his eyes hidden by his hanging bangs.

"To stop him, yes."

"To kill him?"

"Yes."

"And as soon as you get to Cross, you'll let me go? No questions?"

"None, you'll be free to do whatever you want within the reasons of the law, of course."

"And Fem-face here will stop taking my arms out of their sockets all the time?"

"Kanda, have you been taking his shoulders out of their sockets?"

"It _feels_ like it," Allen complained. Komui sighed and Kanda rolled his eyes.

"Unfortunately, Allen, I'm afraid we cant let you go until—" Komui started.

"Fine."

That took a few moments. Then, "What?"

Allen swung his head upward and knocked the bangs out of his face. "Fine," He repeated. "I'll help you as long as I get no more involved then finding Cross and we take my means of travel, whether it be train or boat or goat-pulled cart."

Komui nodded. "Agreed," He looked then to Kanda, who dropped Allen's arms making him fallto the floor, and took a step back, scowling. Allen promptly began rolling his shoulders and massaging his muscles in them.

Getting back to his feet a moment later, Allen took a few steps forward and extended his right hand to Komui. "Tell the whole plan next time before making people agree, it'll do wonders for diplomacy."

"I'll keep that in mind," Komui said, shaking Allen's hand. "Best of luck to you all," He said, glancing more around to the exorcists then to Allen, unsurprising as it was, it was noted.

Over the next few days, the first days of the mission, the exorcists began to realize something.

Allen Walker was certainly the most _impossible, annoying, deranged, bastard_ that the they ever had the misfortune to meet.

**In reviews, please give some ideas to what happens next or in between-space that I'm drawing total blanks on.**

**And no, I don't care how completely absurd you think your ideas are. I just want to hear them.**

**Sorry for being cranky lately, it's really late for me and I'm losing a lot of sleep lately...**

**-Akky (who, despite being ridiculously cranky, still loves you all)**


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